THE last dentist in North Wales accepting new NHS patients last night warned he may quit the health service.

A UK-wide shortage of dentists means patients travel from as far afield as Newcastle upon Tyne and London to Mohammed Razman's Bar-mouth practice.

For months, Mr Razman was the last dentist in North Wales willing to accept new NHS patients, while many disillusioned colleagues quit the health service for private practice.

Mr Razman signed up 3,000 patients at his surgery, twice the size of an average list.

But he warned he might be forced to turn away from the NHS due to pressure of work and dis-satisfaction with a new payments system.

"I am loyal to my patients rather than the NHS which is just a system," he said..

"I am representing an area where people aren't well off and most are on income support and are exempt patients.

"I look to help them as much as I can."

According to the NHS Direct web-site, since last April he was the only dentist in North Wales accepting new health service patient after a dentist in Ruthin decided his list was too big to accept any more work.

Mr Razman said he had patients on his books from as far as Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Birmingham and London who travel for treatment during holidays.

Many others travelled long distances within North Wales.

A new NHS contract, negotiated in long drawn-out talks between the Department of Health and British Dental Association, is due to start in April.

Many of his dentist colleagues have already quit the NHS system, except for treating children, pensioners and exempt patients.

Mr Razman said he was prepared to give the new contract a chance rather than switch to private practice.

But the dental surgeon, who qualified in London in 1993 and worked in Mansfield and Birmingham before Barmouth, added: "If it's not favourable then I will have to make alternative arrangements.

"The government has to do something to employ more dentists and I don't think this new contract is favourable and it needs to discuss this with the profession."

A new banding system for payments could even leave dentists out of pocket, he said.

"I need to study the new contract before I can make a decision."

New surgeries could serve 37,000 patients

New surgeries could serve 37,000 patients

UP to 37,000 NHS dental patients could eventually be served by three new surgeries in North Wales.

The new surgeries in Flintshire could be in place by the end of March if planning consent is secured and funding approved from the Welsh Assembly government.

Flintshire local health board (LHB) appointed Norwich-based corporate dental services provider Oasis to establish the surgeries in Mold, Deeside and Flint, each providing five chairs.

The five-year contract requires meeting a notional list per chair of 2,500 patients within the first two years, with a growth of 10% between three and five years.

Oasis already runs dental surgeries around the UK and won the contract against three other shortlisted companies.

Invitations to tender for the new personal dental services were sent to 28 national corporate dental providers and to local private and NHS dental practices, as well as the community dental service.

The board heard Oasis was "as well-placed as could be reasonably expected" to meet the March target and gave assurances of suitable premises, refurbishing and staffing within the timescale.

Performance will be closely monitored by the LHB, which will also continue to work with local dental practices interested in increasing NHS capacity.

The board said yesterday it was essential to complete the associated applications for PDS funding to Assembly government, which was already in progress.

But the board is in a position in 2005-6 to contribute and, if required, cover in full the capital requirements of the proposed package.

A Flintshire LHB spokesperson said: "The work we have done delivers on the board's commitment to improving access to dentistry in the county.

"The next stage is the approval of the PDS submission from the Assembly government for funding, and to ensure change of use and planning approval from Flintshire county council.

"This will enable us to ensure services are up and running before March 31. There is additional revenue funding available if we can meet this deadline."

Delyn AM Sandy Mewies pledged full backing for the plans.

"I have been in contact with health minister Dr Brian Gibbons urging him to give this plan immediate and favourable consideration," she said..

'More of us will go over new contracts'

'More of us will go over new contracts'

A WELSH dentists' leader warned more could quit the NHS in opposition to a new contract.

British Dental Association Welsh director Stuart Geddes said a proposed 200-page deal from the Department of Health "by and large" ignored concerns from the profession.

"It is going to be opposed," he said. "It would be an imposed contract from April.

"We haven't been given an opportunity to negotiate the terms and conditions, simply told we are having a new contract.

"All these contracts have got to be agreed with individual practices because if they don't, by March 30, they won't be providing NHS services. That's the worst case scenario."

An Assembly spokesman said under the new contract a dentist would be expected to provide a certain number of courses of treatment over a year, weighted by their complexity.

"But it will be 10% fewer (5% in England) than the number provided in the test period, ie 10% less work in 2006-7 than in the previous year.

"Dentists will not be left out of pocket under the new charging system.

"The dentist will also have a guaranteed income."

In May, the Assembly government announced #5m for the new personal dental scheme, which gives dentists more freedom in the way they treat patients.

So far, 62 practices have signed up for the scheme, which secured NHS treatment for 247,000 existing and 60,000 additional patients.

"There are another 25 practices going through the approval process and more than 50 other expressions of interest in the scheme," said the spokesman..

"This will move dentists away from the item of service treadmill, free up more time to spend with patients and allow them to better manage both their clinical and practice business workloads."

Just 38.8% of people are registered with an NHS dentist in North Wales, compared with 48% in Mid and West Wales and 52.4% in South East Wales.